Reaching out from Grand Lake Community Chapel
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Greetings in Christ!
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it! Let us rejoice in bright sunshine to welcome Valentine’s Day, a day for celebrating love. And let us be glad for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Season of Lent. St. Valentine, the patron saint of lovers and beekeepers, was priest and physician in Rome in the 3rd Century, who (according to legend), signed a letter “from your Valentine” to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended and healed from blindness. An alternative legend suggests that St. Valentine secretly married couples so that the husbands couldn’t be drafted to serve in a war. Either way, St. Valentine was guided by love to serve others.
And we are guided by love to serve others, and to serve the church. On this Ash Wednesday, love calls us to repentance and discipline as we prepare for Christ’s Passion and Resurrection at Easter. Through the simple act of the imposition of ashes, we are reminded of where we came from and to where we will return when the time comes for us to be called home. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that we are reminded of from whom we came, and to whom we shall return; Almighty God. Ash Wednesday, and the Season of Lent that follows, is an invitation to each one of us to draw closer to the Divine so that we can better hear what changes in our lives will allow us to live in full communion with God and Jesus Christ, and those who share the journey of life with us. We’ve been saying this for years, but it bears repeating; Lent is not about “giving something up” in a superficial act of contrition. Lent is about setting aside distractions and temptations so that we can focus on what really matters – our relationship with God, and our walk with Christ. Join us in this part of the journey!!
Blessings to you!
Karen and Greg
Home: (989) 474-9116, Cell: (734) 502-5969
revgregrc@yahoo.com / revgreggl@yahoo.com
revkarenrc@yahoo.com / revkarengl@yahoo.com
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1
Grand Lake Community Chapel 